Monday, January 18, 2016

Together
since their teens, Molly and Jake have four children, a house in a sleepy
village and jobs that bore them to distraction. Their marriage is an accident
waiting to happen. When Nick arrives in Mayfield, young, disturbed and in
desperate need of mother-love, Molly doesn’t realise that he will be the
catalyst that blows everything apart. Add a headmaster whose wife doesn’t
understand him and Molly’s unpredictable, frustrated best friend to the mix,
and the blue touch paper has been well and truly lit.

‘If people need things putting in boxes, they’ll have to find them and
put them in themselves for once,’ says Jake through gritted teeth, as he tries
to make toast, unload the dishwasher, find clean socks for Hattie’s netball
match and avoid the small pile of cat-sick by the table leg. He sighs and mops
up the squelchy mess on the floor before Theo spreads it around the kitchen
with her big boots.

It’s only the third day of term so the foolproof system for school
mornings hasn’t kicked in yet. Even the two kittens look offended, meowing
around Theo’s feet as she rifles through her schoolbag for her lost homework.

Jake feels as if he’s dropped into some alien, much less relaxing world.
His early morning routine usually involves sitting at the kitchen table
drinking strong coffee and keeping some kind of order while Molly dashes around
serving up milky tea, bacon sandwiches, and muesli. As she cling-films
sandwiches, throws yogurts and chocolate biscuits into plastic bags and sorts
out last-minute crises, she talks him through the day ahead. She likes him to know
what’s going on.

Theo still hasn’t found her homework. Jake and Molly’s eldest daughter
is reasonably chilled, as a rule, but today she’s in a filthy mood. Her form
tutor has given a final warning that if anyone else comes to school with purple
streaks in their hair, he’ll make them wear his grey woolly hat to lessons.
Theo’s managed to cover the offending bit of her fringe with black poster
paint, having run out of dye, but she knows if it rains things could go badly
wrong.

Jake can hear Theo muttering as she abandons the homework search and
opens a tin of food for the yowling kittens, gashing her finger in the process,
and bleeding all over Sam’s newly-made tuna sandwiches. She spits out all the
rudest words she knows, and so does Sam, which makes Hattie run round the table
screaming, ‘He said the “F” word, Dad, and she said “bugger”.’

Jake’s patience, never his strong
point, runs out. ‘At your age,’ he thunders, ‘me and my little brother did all
the chores for our mum before breakfast, went to school without moaning, and
then came back and did our paper rounds. We weren’t spoiled like you lot –
you’re all an absolute disgrace.’

Theo pulls herself up to her full five feet four inches. She hasn’t been
allowed to have a paper round due to Molly’s fear of possible rapists and
muggers on the loose. It’s a peaceful village normally, but there’s a first for
everything.

Author
Bio:

Celia J Anderson loves cake, champagne
and her family, although not in that order. Moondancing is the first book she
ever completed but it needed a couple of years relaxing in the cupboard before
it was ready to be revamped to follow Sweet Proposal, Little Boxes and Living
the Dream out into the world.

One eighth of the Romaniacs, to be found
at https://theromaniacgroup.wordpress.com,
Celia regularly blogs with this sparkling group of writers who support each
other through the journey to publishing and beyond. Her ultimate aims are to
spend less time on Facebook, have a few less chins and to walk five miles a day
- she feels the three may be connected...

Muffy, author of provocative romance about
love, sex, hope and passion, was born in Texas to traditional parents. With two
older brothers, she was the youngest, the family "princess," indulged
and pampered. Her father was a career Colonel and pilot in the U.S. Air Force
which required the family to travel extensively. Muffy spent her formative
years in Europe and 'came of age' in France which forged her joie de vivre and
love for books, writing and education.

Married and living in the tropical paradise of
SW Florida along the Gulf Coast, Muffy dabbles in real estate, writes and
enjoys life in the sun with her husband and wee Havanese pup, Burt.